The River of Unmindfulness
by DifficultFae
Summary: In the aftermath of the Ancients' party, the city is in turmoil. To combat their enemies, Bo and Lauren need to find out more about the mysterious coin and its powers. But they unveil more than they had bargained for... Doccubus! (Multi-chapter & sequel to "White Tie". I'd recommend a (re-)read, because otherwise this story probably won't make a lot of sense...)
1. Reuniting

Since some people were kind enough to ask for it, and thanks to an inspiration provided by Pasha.D, here's the sequel to "White Tie". Set after "End of Faes" and begun before 5x09 even had an air date (it's Sept 6th, 2015, ICYMI), the story by definition leaves the confines of the show which my canon-adhering self struggled with.

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A/N The River of Unmindfulness (ameles potamos), also known as Lethe, is a river that flows through the Underworld of Greek mythology. On their way to Hades, the dead had to drink its water to erase all memories of their lives.

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Reuniting

That the footsteps weren't Dyson's didn't register with Lauren. She was too immersed in her work as she had been for more than three weeks now. Her inner clock told her it was time for his regular late night visit, otherwise she would have ignored the sound altogether.

Dyson would always come by the clinic at the end of the day, bringing food and news and asking, almost begging her to get at least a few hours of sleep; or what counted as sleep for Lauren these days. Usually, she would toss and turn on the cot Dyson had set up for her in an unused hospital room next to the lab, sometimes waking up, sweat-soaked, to her own screams from the nightmares that were haunting her. It was easier to stay awake, and busy, even if it felt like she was constantly rolling in broken glass.

The footsteps stopped at the door, and with the warm and ready smile the thought of Dyson brought to her face these days, Lauren looked up from the array of tissue samples surrounding her.

Gripping the solid stainless steel of the lab's counter, it took all her strength to remain upright. The air was sucked out of her lungs, blood rushed from her brain, her vision swam.

"Bo." Hoarse, a mere whisper.

"Hey Lauren." Even close to losing her senses, Lauren saw the hesitation in her crooked grin and the doubt in her dark brown eyes. She found herself praying that this was not an apparition from one of her tortured dreams.

No – there was just too much distinct Bo-ness staring back at her. The Bo who ghosted through her darkest hours was always a little out of focus. The woman in front of her was sharply outlined against the light coming in from the hallway. In her nightmares, Lauren could never quite describe what Bo was wearing. Now, the small wrinkles in the tight black pants, the decorative knots down the front of the leather bodice that highlighted every contour of her luscious shape were magnified to almost painful clarity. The tiny crunch of Bo's knee-length boots as she shifted her weight was as audible as the sound of her breathing, and the cut of the bodice left little doubt that she was breathing hard.

They both stood motionless for a small eternity, numb, trapped in a closet of hope and disbelief. Lauren found the emergency exit first:

"Apparently, I've developed a severe but probably temporary dysfunction in my motor cortex which fails to activate, among others, my quadriceps femoris and my triceps surae." She smiled faintly. "I deduce the evanescent nature of this phenomenon from the fact that my similarily affected Broca's area seems to have recuperated."

Lauren's habit of a lifetime met Bo's customary reaction.

"What?"

"I can't move," Lauren said. "But at least I can speak again."

Bo's entire face broke into a smile that deepend even further when she saw Lauren smile back. She bridged the distance between them with a few long strides and swept the doctor into an embrace that was as frantic as it was quiet.

Lauren inhaled the scent of Bo's hair, of her skin, and the fleeting suspicion she'd harboured that the woman might have been an illusion or an impostor vanished. No one could imitate the way Bo held her, no one could copy the map of this body that was more familiar to Lauren than her own. "Oh gods, you're alive..." she breathed. Wrapped up in the arms of her love, something she'd almost given up hope to ever know again, she felt her burning eyes water. "Where have you been?"

"I don't know."

Reluctantly, Lauren pulled back and looked at Bo quizically. "What do you mean?"

"Just that: I have no idea where I've been." Fear moved over Bo's face and settled there. She cast her eyes down and started playing with a strand of Lauren's hair. "I also don't know... I'm not sure if..." She drew a deep breath and soldiered on: "Tell me the truth, Lauren: what's the body count?"

Lauren was taken a little aback by the question. "Well, apart from the victims of the Ancients, I had to put Tamsin in an artificial coma. Mark is healing, slowly, but..."

"I meant _my_ body count," Bo interrupted, her voice still low.

Lauren searched Bo's face for an explanation and realised that her words hadn't really registered with the other woman. " _Your_ body count?"

"Maybe I'd better start at the beginning," Bo said after a brief silence. "I woke up this afternoon, alone, in my bed. I can't remember how I got there. The clubhouse was dustier than even I would allow, the contents of the fridge were growing fur and tentacles, and it looked like someone had been fighting in the living room. My phone was dead, but when I hooked it up, it told me that more than three weeks had passed since we went to that party. I have no idea where I've been, what I've done, what may have happened." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "But I'm not hungry."

Lauren's mind automatically processed this information. "So you think..."

"I think I must have fed. At some point. And I … I feel weird. Something's changed. I have changed. It's hard to explain, but … I'm not sure I have been able to ... control myself. So I need to know if I... If I killed."

Lauren gently wiped away a tear that was beginning to roll down Bo's cheek. "It's alright, my love. There is no body count. Dyson and Vex have been pounding the pavement all day, every day since you went missing, looking for you. They found a lot of weird and gruesome things, but not a single succubus kill. And believe me, they would have noticed."

The relief that washed over Bo was almost palpable. "Thank Fae..." she whispered. "Wait a moment – Dyson and Vex? Together?" Lauren nodded. "And they're both still alive?" Another nod. "Wow. Apparently, I've missed all the fun these last three weeks."

"I guess that depends on your definition of fun," Lauren said wrily. "Most of the Fae left the city. Trick and Evony have made an uneasy truce in an attempt to hold up a semblance of order in what remains of the community. Vex and Dyson are the only two willing to fight against the Ancients. For some reason, they've gone underground but still manage to wreak enough havoc to keep us on our toes. We're understaffed at the clinic with two of ours in intensive care, and then there's the endless supply of victims of the mayhem the Ancients are causing."

"But what about you...?" Bo's gaze traced the darker patches under the doctor's weary eyes, the lines etched on her brow and in the corners of her mouth that told a tale of worry, of endless work, of too much weight on her shoulders.

Once again, Lauren doubted that Bo had even heard any of the news she'd just given – almost as if she deliberately chose to ignore everything but this moment, and despite the doctor's ingrained sense of duty, for now she allowed herself to follow suit.

"I've missed you," she said. A simple truth; yes, she'd been on her feet at least twenty hours a day, caring for her patients, performing autopsies on the bodies Vex and Dyson brought in, attending strategy meetings at the group's makeshift headquarters at the Dal, but what had occupied her mind first and foremost every waking minute and in her restless sleep was Bo.

Who still held her close and absentmindedly played with her hair. Whose soothing and exhilarating warmth radiated through every bone in Lauren's body. It suddenly occurred to her that she had called her "my love" just now. It felt right, but did Bo even remember her aborted conversation at the party? And her response to Bo's question?

"Bo?"

"Hm?"

"What's the last thing you recall?"

The smile that lit up Bo's face would have melted polar caps. "You running off with Dyson to look for Mark." A cloud passed over the sun in her eyes, and the doctor in Lauren briefly wondered what traumatic event had caused the memory loss before the lover in her resolutely pushed the thought aside. There would be time for that, later. All she wanted was to seize the moment, the hesitating glow in the chocolate-brown eyes when Bo asked: "Is … your answer … still the same?"

Lauren chuckled softly and leaned her forehead against Bo's. "More than ever."

"Does that mean -" Bo's voice was a shy swagger with a giggle threatening to escape "- that I get to kiss the girl?"

Now Lauren's laughter came into its own. "Oh, boy, yes..." she whooped before she had her breath taken away by the touch of Bo's lips on her, the taste of her tongue against hers. How did she not go insane at the mere idea of never feeling that again? The thought was erased in an avalanche of warmth that engulfed her and carried her to that place where the air was thin and rich and only the two of them existed.

When Lauren felt her lungs expand, her muscles stretch and her skin tingle, it took her a moment to pinpoint the source of the sense of rebirth that swept through her: gently but steadily, Bo was breathing a whisp of Chi into her mouth.

"Whoa," she gasped. "And wow... What...?"

"You looked like you could use a little medicine, doctor," Bo grinned, pleased beyond words that the shadows around the light brown eyes had disappeared, taking a few of the tired lines with them. But not too many – Bo adored the small signs that life and laughter had painted on her lover's face.

"Sweet Fae... I'm not sure the drugs you're selling are even remotely legal but I definitely could get used to them." She laid the tip of her finger in the little hollow between Bo's collarbones and watched it slowly wander downwards. "I like your necklace," she murmured with a twinkle in her eyes that got brighter when she heard Bo's small gasp. She picked up the intricate silver double axe between her thumb and index finger, making sure every butterfly contact increased the sparks that flew between them. Dropping the pendant, she traced the lines of the bodice's upper seam, relishing the slight tremble of smooth skin as she trailed back and forth along the generous slopes. "But something about it makes me crave -"

To Bo's disappointment, the gentle teasing stopped and Lauren frowned.

"You're still not hungry? Not even after Chi-feeding me?" she asked. Bo shook her head. "You're right, that is very unusual..." Before Bo could react, she had slipped out of the embrace and headed for the cabinets containing her medical supplies.

Bo groaned, certain of what was to come. "Tests?" she sighed. "Must we?"

"Actually, not a test as such." Lauren held up a slim black leather band with a thumbnail-sized display. "I've been working on this for quite a while now. I finished it while you were … gone." She didn't say that, irrationally, the research had become her only anchor to the hope that Bo would come back. The hope that one night, Dyson would walk into her lab and not shake his head at her first and always unspoken question. The hope that he would tell her they'd found a clue, a trace, anything that would lead to Bo. And she didn't say that every time, hope would fade a little deeper into darkness. "It's a monitor, custom-made for you. Sensors on the inside measure your skin cell regeneration. The memory chip can store up to a week of readings, and I have developed an algorhythm to extrapolate the influx of Chi on your cell behaviour from the data..." Lauren stopped herself and grinned sheepishly. "Too much geek? Hm... Well, think of it as a Succubus fitbit."

Bo emerged from her adoring haze and took the gadget from the doctor's elegant fingers. She had to admit that the device looked rather stylish. Leaning in, she lowered her voice to the seductive timbre that never failed to fluster Lauren. "So... Where does it go? And does it, hmm, vibrate?"

Lauren didn't even try to fight the brief heat wave that swept through her. She took the strap and fastened it around Bo's wrist, then pulled her close. "Well, no..." she whispered into her ear. "But if you insist on vibration, I'll start working on – let me think – a reverse chastity belt, perhaps?"

Bo softly nibbed the skin of Lauren's neck, then kissed her way along her jaw back to her mouth. "I believe that as of now, everything I need is right here, and buzzing already."

This time, they let their hunger run wild, soaring on each other's lips and the small moans they exchanged, high as kites on familiar and intoxicating taste, flying straight into outer space. They landed smoothly at the same time, inhaling deeply, marvelling how after all these years, after so many kisses, the world around them could still fade away so completely.

Even more than the Chi, the kiss and the dazzling smile Bo flashed her, a smile that spanned everything from tenderness to barely contained desire, wiped away Lauren's weeks of misery. At one point, she would have to let her mind return to that time, but only when it had safely faded from a festering wound to one faint scar among all the others she carried. For now, she lost herself in the delicate dance of Bo's fingertips on her chin and neck and the thought that she could probably sustain herself for the rest of her life on the light in Bo's eyes.

"You know, I was kind of hoping for a full body exam, Doctor Lewis..." Bo trailed her fingers down to the top button of Lauren's shirt, undoing it slowly before moving on to the next one. "All in the interest of science, of – oh hello! What's this?" She touched the thin silver chain that she'd exposed along with the smooth skin of Lauren's chest. "A locket?" Opening the round pendant, her eyes widened. "With a picture of me? Well, shucks, doc, who knew you were such a romantic..."

She could have kicked herself immediately for making fun of Lauren when the thought of being carried, if only as a photo, in the valley between her breasts was delicious no matter how she looked at it.

But Lauren only grinned mischievously as she snatched the locket from Bo's fingers. "Contain yourself, Succubus, it's not what you're thinking... Dammit, it is, but... Oh, whatever – I'll probably never hear the last of it anyway." With an exaggerated sigh, she reached for the button under the counter that sealed the lab and its adjoining rooms from the rest of the clinic. Ignoring Bo's arched eye-brow and the sassy smile, she used the tip of a pen to trigger the lock to a secret compartment behind the photo and reveal the small silver-coloured coin hidden there.

"The Glaukes!" Now Bo was truly thunderstruck. "What the Fae... Well, I guess that explains the need for privacy, but, Lauren, seriously – why didn't you just paint a bright red bullseye on your back?"

"It's the least likely and therefore the safest place, really," Lauren shrugged. "To the Ancients, I am of no significance, Bo. They've ransacked what's left of the Light Fae Compound and Evony's former residence. The Dal was stripped pretty much down to the floor boards twice, and while they did come to the clinic, too, it was more an afterthought than a real search. Trust me, the idea that the Fae would consign such a powerful tool to a mere human for safe-keeping is entirely alien to them."

There was so much quiet authority in Lauren's voice that almost against her will, Bo found herself believing in the logic of the argument. It didn't matter all that much, anyway, at least not compared to the way the woman in her arms was humming under her touch. If anyone came for Lauren, she would save her. She always had.

Then again... Someone who could seduce and de-fae the Morrigan in cold blood, who could throw an axe with deadly accuracy into the back of an invisible god or distract a homicidal Ancient long enough to pick her pockets might not actually need a saviour so much as a partner. An equal.

Suddenly, Bo felt like she was looking at one of those optical illusions where you never knew whether you saw a vase or two faces.

The small sigh from Lauren's lips as she carefully closed and replaced the locket, and the sight of her simple white bra rising and falling with every quick breath drew Bo's attention back to an entirely different kind of need. She had a very good idea where she wanted to go with the partly open shirt and the unmistakable blush of arousal on the bare skin behind it, but before she could reach for the next button, Lauren had swung her around so that the small of her back pressed into the counter.

With one swift movement, Lauren reached around and made short work of the sturdy zipper that held Bo's bodice together, sending an almost painful shiver down her exposed spine. As the leather dropped to the floor, Bo felt warm eyes caress her, getting drunk on the sight, followed by the feather-light touch of Lauren's fingertips as they began to write a new chapter of her endless love letter. With lips and tongue, she added words, in gentle brushes on her collarbones, words like forever, with bolder strokes as she travelled down towards her breasts, mine, yours, echoed in the moans she drew from Bo's speechless throat, painting meandering twirls and tiny curlicues on sensitive ball-point tips, setting pointed exclamation marks that flickered behind Bo's closed lids like neon signs. The invisible imprint spread, one sinuous sentence at a time. I missed you, in calligraphy on Bo's legs as she slowly peeled the pants off, trailing back up. There's only you, a tongue dipped into colourless ink, over and over again. I want you. Fluid movements, longhand, cursive, scrawling round vowels and burning consonants, etching need and desire deep into Bo's core.

As the letter grew and covered her in a delicate tattoo of passion, Bo's replies became inarticulate, sharp yelps and piercing cries stretching into the final, continuous curve as she screamed her lover's name.

Lauren caught her in her arms as she slid to the floor, weightless and insubstantial, and held her as she slowly emerged from the thrall. She smiled at the still incoherent sounds tumbling happily from Bo's lips before she found her voice again.

"What's that speech thing you geeked out about just now?" she eventually murmured.

"Broca's area?"

"Hm-hm... I think whatever happened to yours then just happened to mine, too..."

A tiny chuckle bubbled up in Lauren as she traced another small inscription on Bo's shoulder. "You leave me speechless quite a lot, but never so much as in that moment." She resolutely shut the sadness that had become so familiar during Bo's absence in a locker and threw away the key, but she couldn't hide the slight change of mood from the Succubus who turned her head to look at her and softly kiss her lips.

"I'm sorry I've left you alone," she whispered. "I promised myself I would never do that again." She slipped her hand under Lauren's shirt, just to feel her warm skin. "You know, for the longest time I struggled with the concept of living hundreds of years. It didn't seem real – after all, for most of my life, I thought I was human. Then somewhere along the way, I lost sight of the fact that _you're_ human." When Lauren opened her mouth, she stopped her with another kiss. "No, let me finish. I wasted time, your – our – precious time. So here's my other promise: from now on, I will make every moment count."

Before Lauren could find any words, Bo took her speech and her breath away with a third kiss, deep and tender – a signature under a contract written on both their bodies.

###

Lauren slept soundly, freed from her nightmares, deliciously spent from acquainting herself again with every curve of Bo's body, every inch of sensitive skin and all the sometimes simple, sometimes intricate ways she could make her ascend to a state of very vocal bliss and then having the roles reversed. Nonetheless, her body was so accustomed to short nights that she woke after four hours, still tired to the bones but full of quiet energy. A faint voice in her head told her that there was work to be done and patients to see, but for once, she banished the world outside from her mind. It would crash the gates soon enough, and this night, this moment, was hers.

The early morning sun slanted its beams through the blinds covering the window of the stark hospital room that had been her dungeon for so many nights. Today, the room seemed grander than the President's suite in a five star hotel, and the narrow cot more comfortable than any bed she'd ever slept in. She remembered being carried there after almost every available surface in her lab had been re-purposed to their mutual delight. Bo was curled up with her back to Lauren who realised that in all those years, she'd rarely been up before Bo, and she'd never been the one cradling her. Careful not to disturb the sleeping beauty next to her, Lauren raised herself on one elbow, stretching against the slight protest of her muscles, and watched Bo's profile, so relaxed, so content, with a smile playing around her full lips. Even the simple act of breathing, the slow rise and fall of her chest in deep slumber was exquisit to behold.

Respiration – molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide being exchanged by diffusion between the gaseous external environment on the one hand and erythrocytes and plasma on the other. Lauren smirked and rolled her eyes at her inner geek who had an uncanny knack for piping up in the most inopportune moments.

Still, the process was one of the body's many miracles; so complex, yet so natural, like, well, like breathing. Infinitely more fascinating was the power to take, let alone to give, someone's life force. In the early stages of her research, Lauren had discovered that, within the variants of her Fae biochemistry, the mechanisms of Bo's regeneration showed similarities to both physiological and cellular respiration in humans. Unlike breathing air, however, breathing Chi required effort and...

"Holy socks!" Lauren whispered. What if...? No... Impossible. Well, unlikely, she corrected herself. But it would explain the lack of hunger, she thought. There was only one way to find out exactly how unlikely, and it was more than worth the try.

Her hands were a little unsteady, but she managed to unfasten the buckle on Bo's newly acquired wristband without waking her. Carefully disentangling herself from the sheets that barely covered them, she almost ran to the lab next door and linked the device to her laptop. For once, she knew exactly how much Chi Bo had taken in the last twelve hours: none. On the contrary, she had given a little. The memory sent a few white-hot tingles through her veins, followed by an involuntary moan when she recalled the small waves of energy Bo had pulsed into her with an immaculate sense of timing.

Instinctively, she reached for her labcoat and the cover of professional detachment it usually provided. 'Get a grip, woman!', she admonished herself even though she could still feel her own ear-to-ear smile. From her – very thorough – physical exam, she knew there hadn't been a single scratch on her lover's creamy skin. Her perfect specimen of the succubi species had been in equally perfect health before she came… Several times, in fact... 'Sheesh, Lauren, stop acting like a teenager!' But the happy chuckle was already out there as she mentally allowed for vigorous physical activity in her calculation. Apparently, the labcoat failed to do its job, and her giddiness only increased when the data from the sensors supported her hypothesis. The conclusion wasn't final, she needed more tests to be on the safe side, but still... After checking that the lab was still sealed, and then re-checking the readings to make sure a fist-bump-and-high-five-myself dance wouldn't be premature, she unleashed her inner James Brown for a silent but rather athletic rendition of "I Feel Good".

When she finally flipped onto a revolving stool for a final spin, the sight of Bo leaning against the door jamb and sporting a more than appreciative grin stopped her dead.

"I think I should spend more time in your lab," Bo said casually. "I can't imagine what I must have missed in the past."

Lauren felt the heat rise in her cheeks. "How long...?"

Bo looked like a cat that had eaten an entire aviary, with the canary and cream for dessert. "Long enough to conclude that watching you shimmy in nothing but your lab coat, your unbuttoned lab coat, I might add, could totally make it to the top of my list of favourite views."

Lauren's blush was replaced by a twinkle and a soft chuckle that evaporated quite a bit of Bo's tongue-in-cheek cool. "And yet, compared to you, I'm positively overdressed." She gave the castors on her stool a strong push which brought her within arm's reach of the view that had made it to her own top ten list a long time ago. With a few well-placed moves, she had Bo sitting astride on her lap and the view so close that not paying hommage to it was simply not an option.

Sinking into the fiery sensation of Lauren's palms on her breasts, of her lips wandering from one tip to the other, of tongue and fingers taking turns in gently circling the peaks, Bo temporarily forgot to ask what exactly Lauren had been celebrating.

TBC

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 _Dedicated to my Queen, because no matter how many miles there are between us now, you're always here with me; and to Laura, the best beta anyone could ever wish for._


	2. Revealing

A/N Thank you for every single review, follow and favourite – you rock!

Revealing

Bo's mind was drifting. Every now and then, a sentence would leak into her consciousness, but the familiar voices of Trick, Dyson, Evony and Vex as they briefed each other on the latest development in their guerilla warfare against a hidden enemy mostly served as white noise for her wandering thoughts. Whenever Lauren spoke, Bo's hearing would instantly tune in to that melodious cadence, but for all practical purposes, she'd lost the conversation's thread early on, like a school kid returning to class after being sick for a few weeks and lagging behind in the subject matter. Bo smiled inwardly as she contemplated the type of private tutoring she would want Lauren to provide.

At least that hadn't changed, this instant connection that never needed words. Two hearts, two souls, two bodies connected so deeply that it defied description. They still found home in each other's eyes, the world in each other's arms.

Tearing herself away from the sight of Lauren, from her skin-tight dark blue jeans, her form-fitting silk button up and all the delight the garments hid, she panned the scene. After the initial onslaught of questions – where had she been? she didn't know – what had happened? she didn't know – why? how? when? for Fae's sake, she did not know! – Bo kept herself in the background. Trick and Evony were sitting next to each other behind a table like judges at an impromptu trial. Vex was leaning against a column, oozing disapproval of the whole setting. Lauren stood a little to the side, ramrod straight, balanced on the balls of her feet. Another smile settled in the corners of Bo's mouth as she saw the doctor's aura brighten every now and then, as if she felt her lover's eyes on her. Or maybe it was just that her mind, like Bo's, kept travelling down the path of very recent memories...

Bo had learned over the years that people's energy flow came in many distinctly different hues. Lauren's was a unique shade of amber, as if the gold of her hair had fused with the light brown of her eyes. Deep yellow flares danced around the edges whenever she sensed Bo's presence, indicating the constant low hum of arousal that could blaze into bright orange at the slightest touch and the blinding colour of molten lava when her desire peaked. Like its owner, Lauren's aura was an exquisite work of art.

Dyson was perched on a bar stool, alert but at ease. His energy was mostly a deep warm brown streaked with shades of beige, white and grey, like the pelt of the wolf he'd turn into. A few hours earlier, when he had barged into their hide-away, it had been as black as the deepest night – a sure sign that he was either intensely angry or intensely worried. Or both.

###

He was banging his fists on the lab's still sealed security doors, shouting "Doc! Are you in there? Lauren! Goddammit, can anyone open this fucking door?!"

Judging by the noise, Dyson was trying to rip the wall to shreds. The racket was entirely lost on Lauren, weeks of sleep deprivation finally winning over. It was Bo's turn to disentangle herself from the embrace, and with a soft touch of lips to her temple and a deep sigh, she pulled the sheet over the blonde's lithe body, slipped into her clothes and let the world into their ad hoc sanctuary.

When the sliding doors parted wide enough to let the wolf-shifter through, Bo grinned at the sight of his dropped jaw. "Speech playing hooky seems to be the thing this season," she remarked.

He was about to ask the obvious questions, but she cut him short.

"It's a long story, Dyson, and you look like you're in a hurry." Letting the world in also meant facing the fact again that she'd lost three weeks, and Bo was was anything but ready for that.

Dyson apparently noticed the deflection and decided to respect it, at least for now. "I am. Well, at least I was." He came closer, grabbed her by her shoulders, and his nostrils widened as he caught her scent. "It really is you..." Only then did he pull her into a crushing hug. "I'm sorry, but I needed to be sure."

Bo retreated, suddenly aware that there were other smells his lupine senses would pick up. "Don't mention it. So what's the alarm?"

"Lauren was supposed to be at the Dal this morning. Strategy meeting. When she didn't show, it was postponed until tonight. Evony flew off the handle at the mere idea of waiting for, and I quote, Lauren of all people. Trick sent me here to see what's what." He tapped his nose, but instead of the jealousy Bo had expected, he gave her a wink. "You wouldn't have anything to do with her unusual tardiness now, would you?"

"Who? Bo?" Once again wearing nothing but a lab coat – buttoned up this time – and a broad grin, Lauren appeared in the doorway. "Now that would be unprecedented, wouldn't it?" She walked over to Bo and pecked her lightly on the cheek, breathing a "hello" so heady that it made Bo's skin tingle. To Bo's surprise, she then turned to Dyson and wrapped her arms around him for a brief but tight embrace. "Sorry, Wolfman, I didn't..."

"'s okay, doc. Just glad you're safe. Even more so now that I know your reason for making us wait."

There was a warmth in Dyson's voice and a tenderness in his eyes that Bo had never seen before when it came to the human doctor. "But I think you should show yourself to your staff."

"I also need to check on Tamsin and Mark," Lauren said. "We'll be with you in ten." Looking around the lab, she realised that many of her clothes had ended up in somewhat unusual places and felt a blush sweep over her face.

"I'll go ahead and wait in the ICU." Dyson turned to go, and Lauren thought they'd gotten off lightly, but he called over his shoulder "You know, Mark and Tamsin won't mind, and your staff won't dare say anything, but before you face the others tonight, you should really both take a shower...", and left.

Lauren rolled her eyes. "My reputation is in tatters", she sighed. "And it's all your fault!"

Bo tried hard not to grin as she pulled Lauren close and ran her fingers lightly along the lapels of her lab coat. "I would do it all over again."

"You know... I concur..." She captured Bo's roving hands and kissed her fingertips. "I also like the idea of taking a shower with you. But first, I have to-"

"I know. We both have to go." She watched Lauren put on her jeans. "By the way, I think your reputation is safe with Dyson. When did the wolf go all soft on you?" She pointed to a wall fixture and said: "And if you absolutely insist on wearing one, your bra is over there."

"Hm... I wonder how it ended up there," Lauren mused, retrieving the bra and looking around for her shirt.

Bo held up her hands. "I had nothing to do with that!"

Lauren merely hummed again and untangled the white cotton straps. "Of course not. As for Dyson... Believe it or not, he's become a real friend." She stood, bra dangling from her hand, lost in thought. "It happened gradually, but it all started when we got drunk as skunks one Yule..." Despite her best intentions, Bo was having a hard time concentrating on anything but the fact that Lauren was so gloriously unclad from her waist up. "He really looked after me while… Well, these last few weeks." She continued dressing, then noticed Bo's ill-concealed pout and added with a shrug and a wicked smile: "It may have helped that he has fallen in love with a human."

"He – what?" That snapped Bo out of her revery.

Lauren nodded. "Well, I don't think he knows it yet, but the way he loses focus when Alicia is around... As with everything Fae -" she cast a meaningful glance at Bo who was way too busy absorbing information to notice "- it's complicated, of course. After all, she was married to the man whose body Heratio took over and-"

"What?"

Lauren, now fully dressed, stepped up to her and decided to increase Bo's confusion a little by taking her earlobe softly between her lips before she whispered: "If you promise me your undivided attention later, I'll … fill you in. Thoroughly and with meticulous attention to detail."

The very deliberate choice of words sent goosebumps over Bo, and it was her turn to sigh. "You're terrible," she complained.

"I had a beacon of a role model to study from." She kissed Bo's furrowed brow. "Come on, let's go."

###

"Lauren." The name, coupled with Trick sounding like an impatient superior officer pulled Bo out of her half-daze. "We need Tamsin back."

"I know."

"That's all?" Evony scoffed. "You _know_? I expected a little more from the supposedly brilliant Doctor Lewis!" She tried for disdain, but Bo heard something else in her voice: fear.

"Do you have any idea what kind of damage a lightning bolt causes?" Lauren asked coolly. "Let me put it in layman's terms for you: Tamsin's brain was fried. And there's no pill to countermand the effects of roughly a hundred million Volts. A human would probably have gone into a coma, but being a stubborn Valkyrie, she didn't. I had to induce it, and unless and until all the damage is healed, that's exactly where she's going to stay."

There was that quiet authority again. Bo stared at Lauren who stood with her feet slightly apart, hands clasped behind her back, head held high, more than a hint of steel in her soft brown eyes. Replaying what little she had paid attention to when the gang had discussed strategy, she realised that the entire time, Lauren had actually pulled all the strings. Final decisions were ostensibly made by Trick and Evony, but it had always and inevitably been Lauren's advice that led them there.

She ambled over to Dyson and whispered in a fairly decent Perez Hilton imitation: "I just figured something out: Lauren is the love child of Admiral Chester Nimitz and Hillary Clinton!"

Her friend chuckled. "So you noticed... Quite impressive, isn't it? Though I would say someone threw a little Cardinal Mazarin into the cocktail." He noticed Bo's puzzled look and explained: "The original 'grey eminence', the real ruler behind the throne of Louis XIV. Met him a few times. Decent guy. Anyway, our quiet doctor constantly manages to fool no other than the Blood King and the Morrigan into believing that they're actually in charge."

"Subtle indeed," Bo agreed, even though "quiet" was not a word she would readily apply to her beautiful lover, but that was on a need-to-know basis. "But how? When? Why?"

The wolfman shrugged. "It just happened, I guess. Things have changed, and she is, after all, scary smart. Apart from the Blood King, she probably knows -"

"Bo! Dyson!" Trick's exasperation made them almost stand to attention. "It feels like middle school in here with you two whispering in the back row!"

Bo bit her lip sort of apologetically and resumed studying Lauren. Now that she was looking for it, she noticed tiny swirls of another colour in her aura – the steel blue of ancient and razor-sharp swords. She'd seen that colour before: when the first Ash she had known had been mortally wounded. When they had to separate in the Garuda's hide-out. And when Lauren had cold-shouldered her in Taft's compound. It had replaced the warm amber with the cold blue of immovable logic – or, as Kenzi would have put it, out goes Hotpants, in comes Doctor Freeze. For them to peacefully coexist, however, to weave in and out of each other at the same time, was a novelty.

Lauren's ability to detach herself from her emotions when necessity dictated it had always been second to none, and Bo had been on the receiving end of that more than once. In hindsight, however, she was certain that there was not a single trace of steel blue during their first night together. If she'd been able back then to read auras as precisely as she could now, she would have seen Lauren's real motive: not to sell her out to the Ash, but to save her from getting killed.

Killed by Vex, who was now one of the motley band of allies. Bo almost had to laugh at the way things turned out. How enemies turned into friends as new enemies emerged. How monsters like Taft or Massimo or the Garuda paled compared to what they were facing now. How what she once thought was an unforgivable betrayal, an insurmountable wall that would keep them apart forever had faded into a minor bump on the Bo-and-Lauren journey. Like Dyson. Or Tamsin who was lying in a coma...

###

In less than the ten minutes they had promised, the two women were on their way to the intensive care unit where Mark and Tamsin were lying in adjacent rooms. In passing, Lauren collared her resident and let herself be brought up to date by the efficient young Fae doctor, signing off forms and dispensing advice as they'd hastened down the hospital hallways.

"So she got hit by a lightning strike that Zee called down on her?" From the doorway, Bo looked at Tamsin's prone form and the frightening amount of tubes and monitors attached to her.

Lauren nodded. "And it rewired her brain in some way or another, yes. Before I put her in a coma, she would alternate between incoherent rambling and severe convulsions, similar to epileptic fits. I've been working on a DBS device – er, a brain pacemaker, basically – but the tremors jump from one neural area to the other, and they vary so much in intensity that programming the neurostimulator would be impossible."

"That sounds … difficult," Bo watched as Lauren checked vital signs and conferred with Tamsin's nurse, then the women walked over to the next room where Dyson was sitting at the side of his son's bed. "But at least Mark is recovering."

"Slowly, but – yes," Lauren said with happy conviction, and the way Dyson looked at her gave Bo another piece in the puzzle of his new-found adoration of Dr Lauren Lewis.

"You worked a miracle, doc," was all he said. It had taken her team eleven hours of surgery, and Lauren remembered every minute of it; cauterising vessels, suturing tissue, fighting against time. She had done plenty of organ transplants before, but this had been her first for a Fae patient, and she still wasn't sure how it would turn out once Mark began to shift. She also definitely did not want to know how Dyson managed to procure a suitable donor liver on such short notice, but at least for now, Mark was alive.

"And Trick and Evony are in charge while Dyson and Vex play Starsky and Hutch?"

"Oh, so you did listen after all?" Lauren teased.

"I can multi-task with the best of them. I simply had, well, let's say more pressing matters on my hands."

"Hm..."

Dyson caught the way the two women were about to get lost in each other's eyes and sighed. "Yeah, don't mind me..." he muttered.

Bo pulled herself together. "And there's no sign of the Ancients?"

"Oh, there are plenty of signs." Lauren gritted her teeth. "Humans eaten down to their bones by what appears to be thumb-sized insects -"

"Classic Heratio, pardon the pun," Dyson interjected.

"- bodies burnt to crisps – Zee's work, I assume – and corpses who are completely black, skin, flesh, bones, organs, even their blood. We don't know what, or who, causes that, but the sheer numbers are unsettling, to say the least."

An image of a blackened hand flashed through Bo's mind. She instinctively looked at her arms and shivered.

"Bo? Are you alright?" Lauren laid a hand on her lover's shoulder. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine." She shook her head, and the image faded away. "Could it be Underfae?"

Dyson shook his head. "There are no Underfae with that MO."

"And no trace evidence of anything Fae near the bodies, unless, of course, the victim itself was Fae, but that's rare since most of them left town."

"That's really helpful, by the way," Bo scoffed. "Skipping town when the you-know-what hits the fan. Aren't we supposed to be some uber-race? More like uber-cowards, apparently."

Dyson looked uncomfortable. "Both the Dark and the Light are without proper leadership. There aren't many Fae who are strong enough to go against the Ancients anyway. I mean, what chance would a Selkie or a Brownie or a Bacchanalian have against a God?"

"Besides, I assume they know by now that you have a weak spot for humans, so what better way to draw you out than to attack them?" Lauren argued.

"You still think this is all about me?"

"Of course it is. They've been after you from the start, haven't they?"

"So my aunt and my uncle go all Quentin Tarantino on us just to get to me? And here I thought my human family was kind of dysfunctional..." Bo was getting angry. "But why not go after my friends? My real family? Wouldn't that be a much more logical target?"

Dyson shrugged. "We've discussed that," he said. "I mean, the council did. And we figured..."

"No, Dyson, _they_ figured," Lauren interrupted. "I never bought into that reasoning. And don't tell me you do, either. I know your instincts tell you that they're wrong."

"I have a vague gut feeling, yes, but until we come up with a better answer, that's the one that makes the most sense."

"At best, it's the one that's farthest away from being utter nonsense," Lauren muttered.

"Doc, please. The council..."

"We're both part of that council, too, but..."

"Hello?" Bo waved a hand between them. "I can see you guys have talked this out more than once, but could someone explain to me what you're talking about?"

"Okay, so the council, namely Trick, Evony and Vex decided that the Ancients leave us alone because we're too strong." Dyson looked at Lauren who held up her hands in defeat. It galled her that her closest friend had sided with the majority. Even more frustrating was the fact that even though she knew they were wrong, she couldn't come up with a better answer. Absent-mindedly, she fiddled with her necklace; it was a habit she had developed lately.

"Well, I don't buy that either," Bo said. "I mean, Zee didn't have too much trouble cold-cocking a Valkyrie."

"Exactly."

"But a Mesmer, a Shifter, a Blood King and a Leanan Sídhe all at once? After all, they don't know that Evony is no longer Fae."

"In that case, why not go after me?" Lauren argued.

"Because we keep an eye out for you."

Lauren shook her head. "I've spent entire days alone in my clinic, with no protection apart from a couple of Evony's Golems. Zee would have made garden gnomes out of them if she'd wanted to."

"Well, whatever the reason, if it's me they want, that's exactly what they're gonna get. I'm just not sure it will be entirely to their liking." A determined furrow appeared between Bo's eyebrows. "Let's go to that council meeting. And then I need to see a man about a horse – or in this case, a God about a girl."

###

"Dammit!"

"Lauren?"

"Bo, maybe you would you be so kind to keep your pet on a leash...?"

"Oh look, it talks."

Trick, Vex and Evony were talking over each other. Bo and Dyson just stared at Lauren's unusual outburst.

"Why didn't I think of that before? Dyson, I know why the Ancients didn't go after us: they need us. Well, not all of us, but you, Bo and me. They need us to find Iris."

"What?" Five voices in perfect sync.

"It's obvious, really," Lauren said. "Bo, we all know they've been looking for you from the start. Persephone gave you the candle so that you could call them down to us. They dangled the Heraclid in front of you like a carrot. They threw the party in your honour. Everything they did, they did it for you."

Vex began humming a few bars before Lauren's glare silenced him. "Not keen on Bryan Adams, love?" he smirked. "Och, aye..."

"After the party, two people were missing," Lauren continued. "You. And Iris. They know she left the penthouse with Mark. And they know we went looking for her. We all came back, but you and Iris didn't. So it's a logical conclusion that your disappearance had something to do with Iris. Maybe they think you took her, or hid her, I don't know, maybe they even think you killed her, but in any case, you're her last known contact."

"And if you're looking for a missing person," Dyson picked up her thought, "you want to talk to the last known contact."

Lauren smiled at him. "Precisely. You were partly right, you know. The Ancients didn't go after Vex, Trick or Evony because they're too powerful."

Evony snorted.

"Well, they _assume_ you're still powerful," Lauren amended. "But the main reason they didn't go after Dyson and the only reason they didn't attack me is that we have police expertise. Now that Iris is missing, we're suddenly useful to them: Dyson's a cop, and I've been your forensic expert for years. Bo, you're a P.I., and we all follow your lead." She smiled softly. "You're our champion... It's as simple as that: they waited for Bo to come back, and they stayed away from us, because they need us to solve a case."

In the silence that followed, four heads were nodding in measured agreement. They began discussing this new angle, and even Evony grudgingly had to admit that this explanation made more sense than the one they'd previously agreed on. Bo was somewhat lost in the sight of Lauren in happy geek mode. She couldn't help it. That radiant smile, the sparkling eyes and the flying hands always enthralled her. Paired with the new easy self-confidence, it was irresistible. She moved over to stand behind Lauren and wrapped her arms around her waist. The scent of her hair and the warmth of her skin so close to her lips only deepened the spell.

"You really are scary smart, Doctor Lewis," she whispered.

"Bo, we..." Lauren was torn between pointing out Bo's rather obvious bad timing and simply enjoying the sensations that ran through her body, audience and appropriateness be damned.

"Ssh..." Bo placed a soft kiss on the nape of Lauren's neck. "They're busy. Let them hash it out while I tell you how sexy your brain is." Lauren almost purred. "And don't even get me started on how hot it is when you go all Puppet Master on Trick and Evony. Strategy and foresight, that's -!"

Bo almost jumped three feet back and stared at Lauren. That alone would have made sure they were now the center of attention.

"The Glaukes!" she exclaimed, suddenly connecting the dots. "You're using it to..." Then she saw Lauren roll her eyes and Dyson push his palms down in front of him as if he was struggling with obstinate pizza dough and Trick frantically shake his head, and a few more dots got connected. "Oh. Um... I guess Evony and Vex didn't know."

An ear-splitting screech startled Bo from her embarrassment. "What? You? You have the Glaukes?" Evony couldn't have looked more flabbergasted if someone had accidentally burnt all her Jimmy Choo's.

Lauren sighed. "No, Evony and Vex didn't know. And, no, I'm not using it."

In the baffled silence that still hung over the bar after Evony's brief outburst, Trick quietly said: "But maybe it's using you."

"Lauren..." Bo stepped back up to her and took her hand between hers. "I'm so sorry for blabbing all over the place. Sometimes..."

"Sometimes your mouth and your brain aren't really synced?" She chuckled. "Have I ever told you that your impetuousness was one of the things that I love most about you?" The twinkle in her eyes made Bo's heart skip a beat, and she was nanoseconds away from kissing that mischievous smile when Dyson pointedly cleared his throat.

"Um, doc, you've tested the coin, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have." Lauren fought herself out of the familiar bubble that was once again slowly closing around her and Bo. "It's high carat white gold with traces of platinum, which is somewhat unusual as there are only a few records of this type of alloy being used back then. However, such records do exist, mainly from ancient Egypt, so I wouldn't read too much into that." She counted the tests she'd done on her fingers. "I carbon-dated it to the late 6th or early 5th century BC which would fit the heyday of Athena worship in ancient Greece. The inscription is common as well, it says 'promachos – atrytone – patroie – glaukopis' which basically means vanguard, unwearying, defender and bright-eyed respectively. Apart from 'parthenos' – virgin – these are the four most prevalent epithets for the goddess, so no-one would be surprised to find them on an Athenian drachme."

"I wonder why there's always a lack of virgins where you and Athena are concerned..." Bo murmured.

Lauren pointedly ignored her. "That 'parthenos' should be missing is interesting, but again, I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it, nor on the fact that normal drachmes would only have the word 'Athena' etched on one side, and just her head instead of a full-length relief. Engraving letters this small onto the edge of a coin required enormous skills, yes, but it wouldn't take mystical powers."

"What about chemical residues on the surface?" Trick asked.

"Yet again, nothing unusual. There's some very low radiation, but most household appliances or even mobile phones would come up with a higher reading. Other than that, none but the trace elements that one would expect on any coin or trinket." She ran her hand through her hair. "I've conducted every test known to man and Fae, and there's absolutely nothing so noteworthy regarding this coin that it couldn't be explained without resorting to the supernatural."

Dyson tilted his head as he tried to work his way around the triple negative. "So you're saying the coin is rare, which we knew, but ordinary?"

"Well, apart from the fact that..." Bo stopped herself so abruptly, she almost left skid marks on the asphalt of speech. "...the Ancients are super-eager to get their hands on it."

One barkeep, one cop and one doctor let out inaudible sighs.

"Well, doctor," Evony managed to make the academic title sound like a well-manicured insult, "it looks like you have failed. Again. Vex and I will leave you and the sunshine gang to it. Call me if you ever find an answer to anything." And with that, she sailed out of the bar, Vex in tow, leaving a wake of relief.

"So..." Bo hoisted herself on a bar stool, and waited until Dyson and Lauren had followed suit. Trick made his way behind the bar and started filling tankards. The scene was oddly reminiscent of the first time the four of them had talked about the Glaukes. "Now for the informal part of the evening... Lauren, have you actually tested the coin? I mean, you know, taken it in your hand and checked if it -"

"- glowed? No." Lauren took a deep breath. "I meant to, but by the time all the other results came in, things really started to go down the drain, the party, the casualties, your..."

"...absence," Dyson finished.

"Yes."

"Well, Bo's right," Trick said. "You haven't run _every_ possible test. Maybe it's time...?"

Three expectant faces and a reluctant one.

"It may help," Dyson murmured. "Help us, I mean. Against the Ancients."

"It's a powerful tool," Trick argued.

"I'm all too aware of that," Lauren sighed. "What if it's too powerful for a mere human?"

Bo laid her hand gently between Lauren's shoulder blades. "We won't let anything happen to you. _I_ won't let anything happen to you."

Resigning herself, Lauren sprang the pendant's secret catch and slowly folded her fingers around the coin. "You know, I have handled it almost a hundred times – 83 times, to be exact – but never for more than a few seconds."

"Scared?"

"Apprehensive."

Bo smiled. "Of course."

"What can possibly go wrong...?" Lauren held Bo's eyes, taking resolve from it but still avoiding to look anywhere else.

"What the Fae..."

"Evony!" A four part chorus greeted the Morrigan's low exhale.

High heels dangling from her hands, she had tiptoed back into the bar. For a brief moment, Evony was the only one staring at Lauren's hand. Then the bright golden glow seeped into everyone's consciousness. Lauren dropped the coin onto the counter as if it had bit her.

"Hot?" Bo took her hand and looked for injuries, but Lauren shook her head.

"No, just -"

"Cut the shit," Evony barked and turned her full focus on Lauren, squinting in disbelief. "You're an Immortal? You're … Athena?"

"Yeah, right," Lauren snapped. "I'm the powerful Greek goddess of warfare, and I put up with all the crap two Ashes threw at me for more than five years, not to mention the crap you threw at me just when I thought I was finally free – help me out here, Evony, why did I do that? Because it was so cosy being a slave? Because being chained up and beaten and starved was my idea of fun? Or, yes, here's a thought: maybe I did it because I couldn't bear the thought of not seeing the way the Fae so tastefully designed my various prisons anymore!"

"Don't you dare mention my interior designer in one breath with Lachlan's – that snake had no taste at all!"

"Oh, shut up, Evony." Another four-part chorus before Bo, Lauren, Trick and Dyson looked at each other and then took another sip of their respective drinks.

Lauren counted to ten. Slowly. "I'm human," she finally declared. "100 percent certified human. After that first … incident, I tested my blood, my DNA, I did full body MRI and ultrasound scans, and I had Dr Sulap check every single result. Anonymously, of course."

Bo whispered to Dyson: "Who's Dr Sulap?"

"Someone so painstaking even Lauren thinks it's too much. She's a shifter. Believe it or not, she turns into a tortoise."

"Oh. That's a little unfortunate," Bo giggled before Trick's disapproving glance once again reminded her she was not in high school anymore.

"I hate to say it, but Evony has a point," he said. "The books are unanimous on that: the Glaukes only glows in the hand of its rightful owner – Athena or a blood relative."

"Books have been known to be wrong." Lauren clenched her jaw. Not that she really believed that. One book, perhaps, even two or five, but Trick was right: every single tome that mentioned the Glaukes at all agreed on this. But the alternative was unthinkable. More than anything, in a world ruled by Fae, her humanity was what defined her. It had caused her pain, she had suffered torture, incarceration, heartbreak, loneliness, insults because of it, but it also set her apart from every horror she had endured. She would still be a woman in a world without Fae, she would still be a scientist, a doctor, a Star Trek memorabilia collector. What made her special, for better or worse, was the fact that she was human. She would not allow a small silver-coloured disk to take that away from her. She wouldn't let anything or anybody take that away from her. Not even Bo.

Bo. In a world without Fae, Lauren wouldn't have met her. She wouldn't have found this most unlikely yet all-consuming love. It was flawed, as much they both were. But it was theirs, and therefore perfect. And her own dogged determination aside, Bo needed her to be human. The Leviathan had been right: Bo wore Lauren's humanity like a shield. It kept her grounded, it protected her from becoming more Fae than she could bear and from succumbing to the monster within. With Kenzi gone, Bo needed that shield more than ever before.

Lauren pulled her shoulders back and repeated: "I. Am. Human."

In the silence that followed the cold certainty of those three words, Evony's voice boomed like the iceberg ripping into the Titanic.

"Well, in that case, there's only one way left to find the answer we're looking for."

TBC


	3. Respiring

Chapter Three: Respiring

A/N Thank you for waiting patiently for this chapter – or maybe not so patiently, I don't know, but I am more than grateful you waited.

A/N I know Toronto unfortunately was not a host city for the 2015 Women's World Cup. I know that, again unfortunately, neither the Canadian Women's National Team nor the German one made it to the final. I know they never even played against against each other in the tournament. But for personal reasons, I liked the thought... So here's the disclaimer: the football game described herein, including the teams, scores, moves, venue, attendance and weather, are entirely a figment of my imagination.

PS: when I say football, I refer to European football; in some parts of the world, that game is known as soccer… ;)

"So your little makeshift council decided – with your permission, I might add – that we should go to Athens, climb the Acropolis, find the hidden vault some obscure parchment roll describes as the hiding place of the One True Writ regarding the Glaukes, and before we do that, we need to wake up Tamsin because otherwise we'd be hopelessly understaffed against the Ancients, but instead of the clinic or even the airport, you bring me – here?"

Faithfully, Bo followed Lauren to her car when she had said there was something they had to check before they could leave for Greece, but when she pulled into the parking lot of the Rogers Centre, Bo was flummoxed.

The fact that Lauren merely nodded and looked as if she was about to burst into a very un-Lauren-like giggle fit didn't help.

"You take me to a football game?"

"Hm-hm." More vigorous nodding, and a mile-wide grin.

"Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?"

If the sound of Lauren's full-blown, side-splitting laughter hadn't been so intoxicating, Bo would have been tempted to snap at her. Instead, she merely closed her eyes and shook her head in wonderment before leaning back against the headrest. A sudden wisp of Lauren's breath on her cheeks startled her, but whatever she was about to say got lost in the slow tease of a kiss, in the taste of Lauren's lips that moved away an eighth of an inch whenever Bo leaned into them and then came back to smooth the pout.

"Soon," the lips promised. "Just trust me." With a gentle hand, Lauren turned Bo's face towards her and led their eyes into a silent dance. "Trust me?" The specks that sparkled in each light brown iris held a promise way beyond a simple postponed kiss. Earnest and happy with more than just a hint of desire, they puzzled Bo. She didn't think she had ever seen that look in Lauren's eyes before. Her reaction to it on the other hand was both instinctual and inevitable: she melted.

"Of course I trust you," she whispered.

"Excellent!" Now the specks were back to being mischievous. Lauren skipped to the passenger side of the car and opened it with an exaggerated bow, tugging at Bo's hand like a seven-year-old in an ice cream parlour. Lost in a slight daze, she followed the doctor towards the stadium. She looked up at the oversized posters of a catcher, framed by two pitchers, on the façade. The CN Tower ruled the sky over the stadium. She could hear the crowd cheer. She dimly remembered that there was a World Cup going on. Canada against Germany. The final. If the noise was anything to go by, Canada was doing well.

An unexpected but familiar shiver spread from Bo's chest over her shoulders and down to her hands. A few steps later, another roar rose from the bleachers. Lauren turned to flash her a smile, and Bo felt the muscles underneath her navel clench involuntarily. She tightened her grip on Lauren's hand.

"Um, babe..." Huskily. She cleared her throat and while she was still busy collecting her wits about her, Lauren had somehow managed to get them past the security guards and into the stadium. Through deserted hallways, they made their way to one of the mid-field stairways. Bo could sense the excitement in the air, the heady rush of almost 50,000 people pulsing with the energy of the game.

"Are you okay?" Lauren's concern, evident in her eyes and the warm hand placed on Bo's arm, cleared the fog that had gathered around Bo's head.

"Yeah, I'm … fine, but there's something really weird about this place. What are we doing here?"

Lauren had unearthed her tablet computer from the depth of her spacious handbag. "Well, it's just a little test that we have to get out of the way before we leave."

Bo smiled. "I can hear the doctor is in the house tonight," she said. "Alright, I'm game – speaking of, can we take a look at what's actually happening on the field?"

"What?" The thought obviously hadn't occurred to Lauren. "Yes, yes, of course."

They climbed the last remaining steps until they had a clear view of the playing field. Bo tried to make sense of what was going on. Ten women in uniform red and ten women in white jerseys and black shorts were, to her eyes, aimlessly running back and forth. To Bo, a confirmed hockey-and-baseball woman, this made no sense at all.

"Do you have any idea what this game is about?" she asked Lauren who was still busy with her tablet.

"An English player once said that football is a simple game: twenty-two people chase a ball for ninety minutes, and at the end, Germany always wins," Lauren smiled. "Can you give me the fit-bit?"

Bo unbuckled the leather strap. "Well, not this time." She pointed to the score board that proclaimed a proud "1" for Canada and "0" for Germany.

"With almost half an hour left, that's not saying much", Lauren sighed.

"This looks silly," Bo proclaimed after a while. "All they do is kick the ball around in the middle of the field. Aren't they supposed to go for the goal?" She swept her hand around the now rather quiet bleachers. "Looks like they're bored, too."

Lauren briefly looked up from the two devices in her hand. "Strategy," she said. "Ball possession and control are important factors." She handed the wristband back to Bo. "I've set up a wireless link. It's weak, I haven't got around to fully developing it for proper range, so you need to stay close to the tablet, okay?"

Fastening the strap around her wrist, Bo nodded and stood behind Lauren, pulling her in and resting her chin on the doctor's shoulder. "Close enough?"

"Hm..." She turned her head for a brief peck on Bo's cheek and settled into the warmth surrounding her. Every now and then, she cast a surreptitious glance at the screen in her hand. If the results of this test turned out the way she hoped, her theory would be proven beyond doubt and -

"Whoa!" Bo tightened her grip around Lauren's waist. "Nice steal! Or whatever they call it in this game..." A red player had snatched the ball during a failed pass, and now the entire field was rushing towards the German goal. The crowd went wild.

In Bo's ears, however, the cheers faded to a whisper, and the bright green of the turf, the players, the bleachers with their waving Maple Leaf flags faded to a blur. She felt dizzy, almost nauseous, and only Lauren's semi-playful slap woke her to the fact that she had been about to slip her hands under the doctor's button-down with the undeniable goal of reaching her breasts. She hastily retreated.

"Bo!"

"Lau-Lauren, I…", she heard herself stammering. "I, I'm sorry, but…" Her hands were roaming again, and through the haze, she watched them as if they were someone else's. She groaned and gritted her teeth, but to no avail. "I. Want. You. Now."

There was more than just need and desire in her voice. Lauren shivered. She held back a moan that threatened to escape, knowing it would send Bo over the edge. Holding on to the last shred of reason and frantically looking around, Lauren managed to drag her lover down the stairs in a weird kind of frog-march because Bo wouldn't let go, unbuttoning the shirt as they went, peppering her neck with heated kisses and small bites.

"Bo, please… Let's… A broom closet, wash room, anything, just don't..."

"Door. Left." The words burst out like bullets. Lauren made for the narrow door, joggling the handle, praying it would be open which it miraculously was. Her relief in finding this sanctuary came through with the release of the breath she didn't realize she was holding.

The darkness in the tiny room was broken only by the piercing blue of the Succubus' eyes. Somewhere in the fog of her desire, Lauren began to get an idea of what unleashed Bo's ravenous need, and groaned slightly at having overlooked something so obvious. Her insight was blown away in the gust that ripped through her with her lover's first touch.

And she surrendered. Even if resisting one of the most powerful Fae who was apparently overcome by passion would be an option for a mere human, Lauren had long before realised that she wasn't succumbing to Bo; she was liberating herself, letting go of restraints and doubts and wounds and her all-pervasive need to think and control, to regulate and rationalise. In the tempest that was Bo's desire, Lauren was free. Free to be whirled around in a tornado of touches, a hurricane of kisses, shaken and raised by an untameable force. Torn apart and shredded, falling apart and restored, and safe every single second, because at the centre of the storm, there was the unearthly calm of being cared for, of being truly loved.

###

"What the hell was that?" Bo leaned against what she could only assume was a shelf, holding Lauren close who was still breathing hard. Slightly damp tresses were tickling her nose. In the deep darkness that surrounded them, she heard her lover chuckle lightly. "Lauren Lewis, are you laughing at me?"

"I would never!"

"Hm. Sounded a lot like you did..." Sighing contentedly, she turned Lauren around for a kiss, missing her lips by an inch and hitting her nose instead. "And why do I get this feeling that you know what happened just now?"

"Well, what happened is that one very greedy Succubus had her beautiful way with a certain human doctor-"

"Lauren..."

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not."

A small square of light appeared in Lauren's hand, confirming that Bo was indeed leaning against a shelf and that the narrow room probably served as a janitor's closet in real life.

"You'll never cease to amaze me, Doc – how did you manage to hold onto that tablet?"

"I honestly don't know. When falling, humans – and probably Fae, too – tend to either let go of everything in their hands or cling to it for dear life. An instinctual reaction to-"

"You're geeking out on me – oh, and by the way, you didn't fall, so your point is moot."

"You're right; it felt more like flying..."

"You're stalling."

"Your observational skills are finely honed, my Love..."

"Lauren! I'm serious. I really have no idea what happened just now. I mean, as a Succubus, I'm quite used to, um, urges, but this…?"

"This, Bo, was what I can only term an overdose."

"An overdose? What, I OD'd on sex? Is that even possible?"

"No, you had an overdose of Chi. Come on, let's get out of this closet and find somewhere to sit."

By the dim light of the tablet's screen, they made sure that Lauren was presentable again, then walked hand in hand to a set of rickety plastic furniture bolted to the ground in front of a concession stand. The arena was empty, discarded paper cups and sandwich wrappers the only sign of recent activity. In the distance, they heard someone sing drunkenly. It sounded like "shland".

"Where is everybody?" Bo asked. "Shouldn't they be celebrating?"

"I guess we've been in the closet longer than I thought..." Lauren grinned. "But _we_ have something to celebrate."

"We do?"

Lauren nodded and handed the tablet to Bo. "My initial premise was correct: you had a Chi overdose."

Bo stared at the endless lines of numbers, and graphs that looked like the recordings of a devastating earthquake, then pushed the tablet back. "Look, this is all geek to me – can you explain it in English?"

A group of boisterous women in white jerseys, with streaks of black, gold and red paint on their faces, sauntered past them, drunk more on victory than on alcohol, singing "We are the champions" in at least four different keys. Bo and Lauren exchanged looks, and the doctor just sighed a silent "I told you so" when one woman slapped her on the back and said "Awesome match, my friend. Sorry you didn't make it!" and rejoined her companions.

"...and at the end, Germany always wins, huh?"

Lauren shrugged. "Some things apparently don't change." She pushed the tablet back towards Bo. "But you have changed. Remember the times when you sucked the Chi out of a room full of people?" Bo shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and Lauren laid a calming hand on her arm. "This is much more powerful, and at the same time entirely harmless. Well, apart from certain side effects that may turn out to be detrimental to my wardrobe… Anyway, I don't know how and when and why, but the English translation of this geek is: you are breathing everyone's Chi, all the time, in tiny doses. That's why you don't feel the need to feed any more: you're feeding all the time. Chi is life force, right? It's energy. Now, everyone who's alive is constantly giving away some of that life force. Humans, Fae – we're all exuding energy. My theory was that when tens of thousands of people are excited about something, a football match, for example, that life force would be strong enough to register."

"And, boy, did it ever..."

Lauren grinned. "Smug suits you, you know?"

"You look way more smug than I ever could, Doctor Lewis!" Bo chuckled.

"Well, the discovery that you ingest and metabolise Chi the same way you ingest and metabolise oxygen can be considered quite a break-through. Unless I'm very much mistaken, a crowd like this could probably generate enough Chi to heal whatever injuries you might sustain, and-" Lauren frowned. "Not that I ever want to test that."

"No, but I'm afraid chances are we might have to."

They sat in silence for a while, then Bo straightened up. "Let's just hope it won't be anything a college basketball game with a less-than-four-figure attendance won't fix, okay?" She jumped up and grabbed Lauren's hand. "And now that the biology test is over, I think there's something we need to do."

###

"Ysabeau – and in this very moment I wish you had a middle name – Dennis!" Even in her close-to-fainting state, barely keeping herself on her feet and feeling like she had just run three marathons in a row, Bo could tell that Lauren was angry. Livid, actually. And even though she couldn't help thinking she had done quite well, Bo had to admit that Lauren had a point.

"But it worked, didn't it?"

That the Succubus' voice barely managed to hit a whisper scared Lauren into action. She nodded to her resident to keep monitoring the EEG, then rushed to Bo's side grabbing a water bottle from a nearby cart as she went.

"Here, drink this," she grumbled. "And yes, the preliminary results indicate that your impudent intervention generated the desired effect."

Bo smiled weakly. "Don't be mad at me, doc. You're way too attractive when you're mad."

"It's not funny, Bo. I haven't seen you this wasted since the time when you refused to feed."

"Have you checked the local college sports schedule? A few shot clock countdowns will, as you once put it so nicely, ramp me up to randy."

"I never said that. And you – you are going to the cafeteria. Now." Lauren's voice was stern, but behind the faint blush, Bo could already detect a tiny smile. "There are always plenty of people there. Have a coffee. Sit tight on that sexy rear end of yours. Breathe. Don't even think about moving. And don't even think about doing something silly again. Are we clear?"

Bo gave a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am."

It reminded Lauren so much of the case they worked together at the then infamous Hecuba prison that she had to laugh in spite of herself. "Get out of here, Succubus," she chuckled.

Bo needed the strong arm of a nurse, but she called "you'll check me out, I mean, check in on me later, doc, won't you?" over her shoulder as she wobbled out of the room.

"Nothing ever changes, huh, doc?" The words were spoken in a voice even weaker than Bo's.

"At least she doesn't, much." Lauren looked at the woman on the bed, the electrical wires binding her now hopefully useless. "Welcome back, Tamsin."

"Just don't ask me 'how are we feeling today', doc."

"That would be pointless as I know the answer: dizzy, hungry, glad to be alive, and slightly irate."

"I would add 'like shit', but other than that, it's a pretty good summary." Tamsin sat up and gave her neck a tentative roll. "So what'd Bo do this time to get your panties all twisted up?"

Lauren reached for her stethoscope. "She brought you back."

"Ha. Of course that would upset you," Tamsin snorted.

"You know, if the doc was making a habit of letting Bo's lovers, ex or current, bite the dust, I wouldn't even be here." Dyson nodded to Lauren. "I heard the news and came as fast as I could."

"At least now I know I'm not in Kansas any more, hooray – the Wolfman and his knight-in-white-armour complex are out in full force."

"She could have left you on Zee's balcony, but she didn't. She could have risked waking you to a state where your brain would be best compared to boiled broccoli, but she didn't. In fact, she could have done plenty of things but spend hours on trying to find a cure for you." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "And it's good to see you too, partner."

Tamsin eyed the doctor warily. "So you want me to thank you, is that it?"

"Actually, you should thank Bo. She breathed enough Chi into you to bring half an army back to life, and it nearly drained her."

"Where is she now?" Dyson asked.

"In the unlikely event that she for once followed my advice, she's in the cafeteria, recharging."

"What? Feeding?"

"Don't worry, Dyson, she's only having coffee, with a little Chi on the side." Lauren briefly explained Bo's new-found abilities.

"Wow. I seriously wonder what happened when she was gone..." Dyson mused.

"Me too. But I'm not sure I'm hoping for her to remember, or if I'd rather she didn't."

"Listen, guys, and sorry to interrupt your little heart-to-heart, but can anyone tell me what the fuck you're talking about?"

Lauren left that task to Dyson and pretended to busy herself with rearranging the items on the counter top in alphanumerical order. She had hoped that by now, Tamsin's clumsy barbs wouldn't find their mark so easily any more, but she found that competing with the Valkyrie was even worse than competing with the Wolf. Dyson had at least been a worthy opponent.

"So," Tamsin concluded, turning to Lauren, "while you and Bo are honeymooning in Greece, you want me to babysit the Motley Sunshine Crew."

"Actually, if anyone was looking for a babysitter, I would have recommended someone slightly more mature." Lauren kept her voice level.

The snarky return died on Tamsin's tongue when she met the disdain in the doctor's eyes. The Valkyrie topped the human by a handful of inches in height, not to mention a few centuries in age, but suddenly, she felt small. In the warm brown depth, she saw all the losses Lauren had suffered, and the self-respect that helped her survive every one of them. She turned to Dyson and realised that he, too, had lost Bo, and even worse, Ciara. Lauren had to carry Nadia to her grave and was still carrying the feeling of guilt. Kenzi had seen Hale's life bleed from him. Human or Fae, grief, defeat and sacrifice were constant companions to all of them, she had seen them cry and curse and rage, yet they had recovered from each blow their dignity intact. She didn't like facing it, but remembering how she had enjoyed watching Lauren stumble, how gleefully she had rubbed salt into her wounds when she was certain of Bo's affection was anything but dignified. And now Lauren was looking at her like the brat she felt she was, and she had to turn her head away.

Dyson noted the small nod Lauren gave in acknowledgement of Tamsin's unspoken apology and broke the uncomfortable silence. "We simply need every hand we can get," he said. "Doc, how long will it take for her to get her full strength back?"

Lauren shrugged. "From what I can tell, she should be good to go in a day or two. After her little stunt, Bo needs some rest as well, and somewhere crowded, if possible. Can you call the council and take Tamsin to the Dal? And don't be secretive about; in fact, be as blatant as possible."

"You want every spy the Ancients employ to know that she's back."

"Exactly. Bo and I will take a more surreptitious route. Actually, I'm thinking of taking the subway – it's rush hour, so a trip all the way from Downsview to Finch should be enough to get her back on track, so to speak." And without any side effects unsuitable for public places, Lauren added secretly.

###

"Evony excuses herself." Vex yawned. "She says she has more urgent matters to attend to. I believe that translates into she's either riding one of her horses or one of her grooms. One didn't want to go into the particulars."

Tamsin caught herself rolling her eyes in a way that even to her felt like an imitation of Lauren's signature expression and quickly changed her face into her own smirk. "You'll surely relay the good news to her like a faithful lap dog."

"Moving on..." Trick cleared his throat. "It seems that our task, while my granddaughter and Doctor Lewis are searching for information on the Glaukes, is to find Iris."

"Last known whereabouts, the party," Dyson added.

"You mean, the park," Trick said. Five puzzled faces turned towards him. "Bo, you saw her in the park. Don't you recall?"

Confused, Bo shook her head.

"You were..."

"Hang on, Trick." Dyson held up his hand. "Are you sure that was after the party?"

"Absolutely. I came here to, well, to be frank, I wanted to look for a recipe for clam dip, like the one they had there, and then Bo rushed in, and..."

"Wait a minute," Dyson interrupted again. "On the force, we had a seminar once on memory loss, and they said that you should try to guide the witness towards recovering their own memories instead of providing what you know. Bo, what is the last thing you clearly remember?"

"You guys going off to look for Mark."

"Okay, picture the scene."

A faint smile played around Bo's lips as she glanced at Lauren. "Done." Even in a dress that looked like a pregnant curtain with ball bearing shoulder straps and matching belt, Lauren had been radiantly beautiful.

"What did you do next? Take it step by step – literally."

Bo closed her eyes to concentrate. She tried to work Iris' face and the park together into one image. "She was… I did find her..." She frowned. "On a bench. We talked. She was upset, crying. Then everything went black..." A sentence came back: "She said she was a murderer."

"She killed the father of the girl whose body she took over," Dyson said.

"I said, or maybe I only thought, that I was the same when I was her age, but that I didn't know who I was, what I was, that I didn't know what I was doing." She looked at Lauren. "I think I wanted her to know that things can change, that power can be controlled, but she kept crying and saying that I shouldn't touch her. I only wanted to calm her down."

"You said everything went black?" Trick asked. "Is that when you lost your memory?"

"No, I mean literally, everything turned black, the whole park, trees, flowers, grass, everything."

"Like in our vision..."

"Vision?"

"We drank the Coquetel, the drink of prophesy," Trick explained.

Tamsin snorted. "Wow, now that was smart..."

"Well, we didn't actually believe it was the real thing," Bo shuddered. "I remember that vision. So many lives lost."

"Obliterated by a vast nothingness," Trick nodded. "And that's what happened in the park?"

"No… I'm not sure… I thinking I'm mixing something up here..."

She turned to Lauren who took her hand and said: "Easy, Bo. Let it come to you."

"If you're trying too hard, you might lose the thread," Dyson said.

Bo stared at her hand in Lauren's. "My arm went black. Almost up to my elbow. As if I had dipped it into an ink well."

"That's it!" Trick slapped the table top. "That's how you came into the Dal that day!"

"I got it now!" Bo seemed almost ecstatic. "You told me Iris was really Nyx – the night, darkness personified, so powerful that even Zeus fears her."

The Blood King nodded vigorously. "Born from Chaos, one of the original Ancients, mother of Death and Doom, of Pain and Rage."

Tamsin cleared her throat. "Lovely girl," she quipped. "So glad you remembered her."

"We figured that the only way to stop her was by using the metal box my father gave me for my birthday."

An uneasy silence settled over the bar room. Finally, Lauren found her voice: "And did you?"

Bo's chest tightened as she remembered coming home to search for the box, only to find that Zee was already looking for it. Fighting Zee and turning the crank on the box. Being blinded by a searing white light. "I think I did. But I may have unleashed something far more evil than Nyx."

TBC


End file.
